Good morning! I am trying to get into a habit of writing down my thoughts into this blog shortly after I wake up. This morning, the following sentence came into my mind: “I’d rather be in my garden… “

Why? You may ask?

This sentence popped in my mind as a response to some conversations I had with my mom and my husband.

My mom is super proud of me and happy that I have a full garden growing and she is concerned about the looming debt ceiling and that we are about to face tough times. My husband was watching the news about the debt ceiling and is concerned about the dollar collapsing.

Personally, I have been concerned about the economy, and about the divisiveness in this country. The political and social divisiveness in this country is more dangerous to our wellbeing and quality of life than any debt ceiling would ever be.

Never did I think that I would be living in a world where just about every single aspect of society is met with arguments and conflict. The introverted empath that I am, does not cope with negativity, conflict, and disarray – it makes me crawl into a shell, and it takes a lot of effort for me to crawl back out of it. I stay in my garden where I feel save, it is my comfort zone, and something I am proud of. And now, it appears that it has become an important investment for our family.

My mother would like to see me stock up on essentials. She was raised in the WW2 aftermath in The Netherlands, and so she was brought up with the mindset of hoarding essentials and living frugal and doing more with less, they saved, had cash on hand for emergencies, and she knows how to do most things manually, without the help of electronics and computers. I strive to be able to live as unplugged as I can be myself, with as little dependence from outside as possible. Therefore, a few years ago, I started implementing homesteading practices as I believe that these skills are timeless, and they may become very valuable.

My husband and I were watching a news program yesterday and it was all doom and gloom about the debt ceiling, and about how the dollar is going to collapse if we keep printing money and if we continue to increase the debt ceiling. He was asking what we should do with any cash reserves “buy gold?”he said. I said no, your best investment is to put it into your home. This sparked some debate, and ultimately, that led me to researching the question about the dollar collapsing.

I vaguely remember a similar thing happening around 2005, when there was this documentary about “When the dollar falls”.

What I found out during my research today was somewhat reassuring. I will try my best to summarize in short bullets some of the reasons why the dollar cannot collapse this easily:

  • The dollar is a world trade currency, meaning in order to trade goods, these goods must be paid for in dollars, as this is the universal currency.
  • There is at this time no other currency that will even come close as a threat to the U.S. dollar
  • Any potential substitute currency must be free and open to trade, which is not China, because they periodically freeze their currency, and they exercise control of their country using their currency.
  • The U.S has a tremendous amount of countries and companies that invest into U.S. trade and economy as it is the strongest currency in the world. It has even though it was downgraded from a AAA+ to an AA+ rating, a level of trust that is unsurpassed by other currencies.
  • The U.S. is the worlds biggest customer, there are many countries that depend on the U.S. to purchase their products so that these countries can have a viable economy themselves.

Now with this said, if you are concerned about your investments and your reserves, there are some means to protect your investments. I located an article that contains more reasoning of why the dollar will not collapse, and it offers suggestions you could do to protect or even earn from a declining dollar value. Have a look at this article from The Balance so you can decide for yourself what you should do to protect your finances from turmoil.

Meanwhile, I would rather be in my garden, because it brings me peace from a world that jumps into a panic mode when someone starts yelling from the rooftops that doomsday is coming. While I am concerned about this inflation, and while I understand that people are scared of collapse and failure, at this time, I think we are actually really needing a good correction of the market as a whole. It is healthy for a market to go through corrections. Corrections are, just like in your own life, challenges that you overcome and from which you and thus the market comes back stronger. It is like going back, reflect, see how and where you need to reinforce your foundation and then continue to build with that stronger foundation, the market as a whole does the same thing. Companies revise their investments, their plans and they invest in new ways to come back stronger. Some industries will suffer greatly under this correction, others will not. Personally, I do what I can to prepare my life to keep things as affordable as I can, and to be as independent as I can be from economic turmoil – other than that, like any other time, I try to enjoy life and ride the waves as they come about.

The one thing I will say is that we must really pay attention to vet whomever is coming in office in 2024 because -and this is purely my healthy Dutch opinion- the bickering between parties needs to stop and we need a candidate that does not care about left or right. We need a candidate that cares about the best interests of the people and someone who can bring parties back to the table. Both parties need to collaborate on a bipartisan plan to move forward. Move all special interests and earmarks off the table and come up with a plan to help the American people, because while left and right are fighting, the American people are left to drown.